[ESG Feature] Sookmyung That Grows with the Community, Soaring with ESG
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- Writer 커뮤니케이션팀
- 보도일자 2023-05-31
As major universities have recently declared ESG management and strengthened related activities, our university＇s efforts to create an eco-friendly campus through the voluntary actions of its members are garnering attention.
On May 23, our university hosted an event titled “Sookmyung Moving Toward a Zero Campus, Seoul Moving Toward the Future” with Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon. Our university, which declared its Sookmyung 2030 vision two years ago with ESG practices as a core goal, and the city of Seoul, which is celebrating its first anniversary of introducing ESG management with the introduction of the climate budget system, have held an event for public-academic cooperation to create a sustainable future together.
At the event, our university unveiled the research sites that are being conducted under the keyword of eco-friendly, and introduced efforts to practice ESG through an interactive booth operated by the Environmental Leadership Group SEM at Sunheon Building Squre. The Communication team would like to share some of the key trends in ESG at our university.
Bolster ESG Research and Industry-Academia Collaboration
Our university is focusing on research in eco-friendly fields with high potential of growth in the future and industry-academia cooperation. The most prominent example is the zero-carbon smart farm research. The Carbon Free 100 (CF100) smart farm, led by Professor Lim Yong-hoon of the Department of Mechanical Systems at our university, works under the concept that absorbs carbon dioxide emitted during the crop cultivation process through the carbon assimilation of plants and offsets it through the use of crop resources to achieve CO2 Net Zero. There have been many universities researching smart farms which focused on increasing production, but this is the first model to reduce carbon emissions, and it is expected to lead the market in the future. At the event, Mayor Oh Se-hoon and Seoul officials, who are supporting technology development of ESG companies and establishment of ESG start-ups, reportedly showed great interest after visiting the smart farm research site.
The eco-friendly project that the Department of Clothing and Textiles has been working on with Youngone Holdings Co., Ltd. since last year has also attracted attention. The upcycled fashion show where students created works using carryover products from The North Face, the flagship brand of Youngone Holdings Co., Ltd., was introduced in a graduation exhibition and it was praised as an ideal model of industry-academia collaboration through ESG.
ESG Campaign Complete with Members’ Engagement
Through the voluntary participation of members, our university boasts that it conducts ESG activity campaigns in a bottom-up manner rather than a top-down manner. And at the forefront is environmental leadership group SEM. SEM is an environmental leadership group created by combining the Sookmyung Environmental Volunteer Group, which was active for eco-friendly campus culture, and GPS, which was mainly engaged in academic exploration on environmental issues. They are striving to foster environmental talents for future generations by planning annual campaigns to raise environmental awareness and providing opportunities for their own academic exploration.
SEM＇s projects include the operation of a refill store (refill station), which was a hot issue at last year’s Sookmyung Festival, “Ssak-Ssak Challenge,” a resource recirculation campaign, a “creating recycling eco-bags with wasted linen” in collaboration with Grand Hyatt Seoul, and the “Sookmyung Earth Hour Campaign,” which was recently conducted to turn off lights and reduce carbon emissions for an hour on Earth Day. Through these efforts, SEM was selected as the best university on Seoul＇s Zero Campus last year. At the event, SEM also operated a “adopting companion plants” and a “bottle lid upcycling” experience booth, contributing to raising members＇ awareness of ESG.
Fostering Student Startups Armed with Eco-Friendly Items
Our university is also actively supporting start-ups specialized in ESG fields. Refurbian (CEO Kim Min-ha), founded by a student, is a startup that received start-up support through the Campus Town Business Group. Refurbian develops and operates a platform that distributes ugly agricultural products with lower product value, realizing two values: coexistence with farms and environmental protection. Another student company, Dream Hangers (CEO Kim Jin-hee), is a startup that uses hotel waste to make and sell dog amenities, pioneering the market for upcycled products that add value to discarded items.
Earlier this year, our university＇s Startup Support Center held an ESG Innovation Startup Ideathon and sparked interest in ESG startups across the university. A total of 45 students from 11 startup clubs participated in the two-days ideathon, and came up with novel ideas such as an “eco-friendly travel information platform that reduces the impact on the planet” and a “silent cafe where people with listening impairments work for CODA.” Our university plans to continue to expand its activities that contribute to the community by fostering good companies for future generations.
In addition, our university is also striving to providing facilities for resource recycling by installing seven waste mask collection boxes in campus and expanding smart separate collection boxes. Why don＇t you join the practice of environmental protection in our daily lives with Sookmyung, which strives to create a disposable-free and a garbage-free campus?